


Sensory Recalibration

by Sproutling



Series: Hold On (One More Time With Feeling) [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Adorable, Bucky Barnes Feels, Bucky Barnes Fluff, Bucky Barnes Gets a Hug, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Bucky Barnes Recovering, Fluff, Fluffy, Fluffy Ending, Just really really fluffy, M/M, Protective Steve Rogers, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-04
Updated: 2016-07-04
Packaged: 2018-07-20 00:41:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7384186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sproutling/pseuds/Sproutling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>If Bucky had any idea how he looked, Tony knew the recently returned super soldier would have clammed up and fled the room immediately.</i>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Tony walks in. Nat walks in. Sam walks in. Steve walks in. Bucky doesn't notice and it's all progress. And toes. Shy, surprisingly captivating toes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sensory Recalibration

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Daily](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daily/gifts).



> So, this had a different working title and to me it will always be _Squishy_ , so make of that what you will, I’m still undecided about the title I’ve used. And I have Daily to thank for reminding me of the word because I only realised it would be perfect when writing to her, so thanks Day! You help me more than you realise :)

If Bucky had any idea how he looked, Tony knew the recently returned super soldier would have clammed up and fled the room immediately. As it was, he didn’t think he could explain the warm fuzzies he got knowing that what he was seeing was rare and precious and wouldn’t be happening if the tortured amnesiac didn’t feel safe. He felt safe here, in Tony’s presence, in the shared area of his tower where any one of the Avengers could suddenly appear.

The knowledge lit Tony up from the inside and he retreated to the kitchen for his first coffee of the day before returning, mug warming his palms. Quite content to sit at the kitchen counter facing the spacious living room where he had an excellent view while sipping at frothy caffeinated goodness. Observing.

The once formidable super soldier was wearing the fuzziest, baby-penguin-gray sweater that looked two sizes too big for him and probably still smelled a little of Steve. Beneath that was a pair of loose sweats and poking out from beneath that were two bare feet. Bare feet with shy toes that pawed at the carpet – carpet that Tony chose specifically for this part of the tower, for when he and his team needed every tangible, tactile comfort available. Thick pile, soft and fluffy and white as snow because Tony was not sacrificing aesthetics for practicality and it’s like Pepper didn’t even _know_ him.

And Tony knew he had a soft, dopey smile on his face but the always agitated, fearful, self-hating man who was Steve’s world was looking at his own toes in wonder as they disappeared and reappeared, and it was the first time he had felt secure enough to forego shoes – in case he was attacked and needed to _runhideescape_ – and Tony knew because Steve had whispered it to him over a mission report that it had only been a week since Bucky’d stopped sleeping in combat boots and there was no one to see his soft dopey smile anyway, so.

The peculiar meditation of carpet+toes=fluffy that Bucky was so entranced by (and which lulled Tony through two coffees) was interrupted some time later, though Bucky didn’t appear to notice. A fact which made it impossible for Tony to resist the soft spot the soldier was carving for himself beside his Arc reactor.

Natasha didn’t react to the two men, didn’t look to have even noticed their presence – like most days, really – and retreated to the kitchen where the sound of a knife on a chopping board could soon be heard. Tony was proud to say it didn’t make him nervous hardly at all. When she reappeared, large bowl of fruit in hand, she sat herself beside Tony, stabbing at the fruit pieces with a tiny fork, and watched with him; her eyes fixed on Bucky’s toes like they were the most vitally interesting little things she’d ever seen.

Every so often they would lift away entirely from the floor and Bucky would swing his legs back and forth a few times before re-immersing them. It was hypnotic; not least because quiet moments like these, while not uncommon, were very precious, and with some more than others it was a sign of progress. Bucky was certainly the most damaged of them, still acclimatising to normality the way Tony remembered having to do when he first returned from Afghanistan. But instead of months it was years, _decades_ that Bucky was trying to assimilate and all of them could see the struggle.

Only right now, there was no struggle. There were only the things he’d been taught to repress – curiosity, comfort. Letting down his guard.

Sam walked in and stopped abruptly. Nat didn’t seem to care enough to lift her eyes from Bucky’s toes but Tony’s gaze drifted to him; wondered if the sudden movement would catch Bucky’s attention. It didn’t; he was too absorbed in his observations. Sam’s eyes flicked between Bucky – distracted, relaxed – Nat – intently focused on Bucky’s bare feet – and Tony, who raised an eyebrow at him and silently indicated the empty stool beside him with his elbow. Sam’s face seemed to say ‘really?’ but nevertheless he moved slowly to the stool and sat. It took him a few minutes to find words. He leaned closer to Tony.

“And what is it we’re watching?” He whispered.

Tony nodded in Bucky’s direction and practically heard Sam’s eye roll. So Tony waited a few moments more to piss him off.

“No shoes,” He eventually whispered back. He caught Sam’s expression out of the corner of his eye. “No shoes, no socks. They’re not here,” He elaborated, looking fully at Sam and saw when the other man realised the extent of what he was saying. Not here, as in, Bucky probably came to this floor barefoot, probably slept and woke up and went up a few floors with bare feet, without even bringing socks with him. And was now feeling the super-soft (super-expensive) carpet of their shared floor for the first time.

“Oh,” Sam exhaled, watching Bucky’s feet, probably more aware of the daily ins and outs of Bucky’s progress than Tony was. Tony nodded in agreement.

And that’s how Steve found them; Nat, Tony and Sam in a row, watching Bucky squish his toes into the carpet with complete concentration. And with an odd look in their direction but a fond smile quirking his lips at their oddness, he dropped his heavier form beside Bucky on the couch making the other bounce with the weight displacement, wrapped a muscled arm around his waist and kissed his temple.

Briefly nosing there with his eyes closed and smiling against the love of his life’s cheek when he felt him lean into the curve of his body, still looking down at his toes like a fascinated child but now resting his head against Steve’s neck, Steve glanced up at his friends who were _still_ unabashedly watching. Nat stabbed at another piece of fruit.

“Or you could just, you know, say good morning?” He suggested, apropos of nothing.

And chuckled at Bucky’s hair tickling his neck, the confused scrunch of his nose, and three Avengers flipping him off.

**Author's Note:**

> So there you have it, a squishily adorable fic (my second Marvel one! Wooo! :D) with some Stucky and general look-at-baby-Bucky-being-adorable-and-penguin-like cuteness. Because I’m a well-adjusted adult. Who likes kudos... :)


End file.
